Theatre Bizarre in Detroit aims to 'push it as far as we can' with new additions

Painters run by, set builders tack pieces of wood together. Late at night, Detroit’s Masonic Temple is alive with action — Theatre Bizarre is once again getting ready for another two weekends at the historic structure.

“It’s the greatest masquerade on Earth,” described John Dunivant, 46, the founder and creative force behind what is one of Detroit’s biggest — and most anticipated — Halloween-season events. “It’s an immersive experience unlike anything else, ever.”

And this year, there are several new additions to enhance the experience.

You have to see it for yourself to believe it, though.

Every single light bulb in the Masonic is changed to hues of greens and autumn, every sign covered up. Thousands of Jack-o’-lanterns line rooms. More than a ton of candy corn fills tables. A ghost train races across the seventh floor, taking guests on the frightening ride of a lifetime through pitch darkness. Employees are all in costume, and you can bet they’ll be acting out roles.

At Theatre Bizarre you’ll find dozens of performances, from burlesque to rock bands to DJs, even a Theatre Bizarre Orchestra. There's Zombo’s Ice Cream Parlor, which features Halloween-themed creations like the Zombo, a pumpkin-spiced and gingersnap ice cream with dark chocolate and bourbon. The Sinema unspools a spliced montage of horror films. And those things are only the beginning.

John Dunivant, the mastermind behind Theatre BizarreBuy Photo
John Dunivant, the mastermind behind Theatre Bizarre now at the Masonic Temple in Detroit, is photographed on Monday, Oct.10, 2016. (Photo: Kimberly P. Mitchell DFP)
What Dunivant, a revered artist, sees in his head transforms into the event, now in its seventh year at the Masonic. Eighteen years ago, Theatre Bizarre started as a one-night, renegade party for friends and family near the old Michigan State Fairgrounds. It became an underground hit, over the years growing in size and ambition until city officials famously shut down the party in 2010. Finally, Theatre Bizarre found secure — and legal — footing at the Masonic. Last year was the first time the event doubled down for two weekends instead of one. (Each weekend kicks off with an exclusive Friday preview gala for 450 attendees, followed by a larger main party on Saturday for 3,000 guests.)

Each year has a theme that ties into the event’s mascot, Zombo the Clown, a sinister character stuck between worlds. This year’s theme is called “The Fortuitous Unfortunates.”

“Fortuitous Unfortunates has a lot of different meanings,” Dunivant explained. “It reflects us as a community of people who put this on. We’re a lot of misfits and knuckleheads coming in from all over, this diverse group of people looking for something to rally behind.”

Theatre Bizarre building crew member Bridget Blondell,Buy Photo
Theatre Bizarre building crew member Bridget Blondell, right, installs drapery at the entrance of Dirty Devil's Peepshow at the Masonic Temple in downtown Detroit, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Photo: Junfu Han, Detroit Free Press)
But the event is “practically killing him,” Dunivant admitted for the third year in a row. It’s bankrupted him, exhausted him and driven the crew to points of madness. “It’s a brutal thing to put on.”

Theatre Bizarre is a nearly million-dollar playground. There’s no corporate sponsor — sales are largely through word-of-mouth, and the party is financed by ticket sales.

That’s why “The Fortuitous Unfortunates” is all about the lucky and equally unlucky ones, the people who get to experience this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that takes everything out of those who make it happen.

It’s a weird theme, Dunivant said, but a personal one. “I want to see this exist. We’re (financially) feeling the weight of two weekends but we don’t want to go back because doing this all year for one weekend is too much.”

Thousands of costumed revelers filled the Masonic Temple
Thousands of costumed revelers filled the Masonic Temple in downtown Detroit during the Theatre Bizarre masquerade ball on Saturday, October 15, 2016. (Photo: John Froelich, Special to the Free Press)
Dunivant’s greatest fear is becoming static, he said. “If you’re static, you’re basically dead. I don’t want to be treading water. I just want to keep pushing this thing as far as we can until it blows up or breaks.”

The momentum of last year was strong enough that he knew he had to keep going, even though ticket sales didn’t meet expectations with a crowd being split in half for the first time. Neither weekend sold out. Dunivant had prepared a financial cushion for doubling the event, and this year that cushion doesn’t exist. Now, it’s all up to ticket sales.

Still, he isn’t giving up.

“We go all year and hope that 75% of this works,” Dunivant laughed. “No one else in the world has this kind of building to use as a playground.”

And what does Zombo think of everything? “He’s maniacally fiddling while the world burns,” Dunivant said. “He sits back and laughs at the chaos of it all.”

2017 marks an evolution for the event, with new spaces, new acts and new additions. Here’s what’s different this year at Theatre Bizarre:

The new Fistotorium: In his years of throwing Theatre Bizarre at the Masonic, Dunivant continues to discover new or unused rooms of the building. So when he came across a 4,000 square-foot dilapidated, cafeteria-style dining room that hadn’t been used in three decades, he wondered what potential it held.

Ed Schneider, right, head of Theatre Bizarre's buildingBuy Photo
Ed Schneider, right, head of Theatre Bizarre's building crew leads a team to set up a cabinet for the Odditorium set up at the Masonic Temple in downtown Detroit, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Photo: Junfu Han, Detroit Free Press)
The room was so filled with three decades-worth of dust and grime that Dunivant says you couldn’t even see what color the floor was. Storage lined the walls. There was barely room to walk. The ceiling was caving in, and columns were at risk of collapsing.

It was madness for the crew. Parts of the ceiling had to be knocked down with a hammer to make sure they wouldn’t fall down during the event.

“You’re having to deal with a century-old building, water damage and construction materials that were used at that time,” Dunivant explains. “It’s crazy because it’s like adding a large home renovation — and it’s just one side project.”

Clearing out the dining room and getting it ready for what will be a brand new, expanded Fistotorium – a much more spacious version of the fetish-themed room – has had crews working around the clock. Late on a recent Tuesday night, they were still painting its walls. But the room was clean and shiny, ready to go for the event’s build-out, which Dunivant says doesn’t stop until doors open for the first preview gala on Friday.

Messer Chups: It all came to chance with the experimental band from St. Petersburg, Russia. It hadn’t toured the U.S. in decades, but in Las Vegas, one of the group's members ran into burlesque performer Roxi D’lite, who programs burlesque production for Theatre Bizarre. She has long danced and created routines to the group's music, which is heavy on Halloween vibes, blending surf rock, layered reverb and spooky themes. So the band decided to create a U.S. tour based around Theatre Bizarre. The first three shows will be Theatre Bizarre performances.

“Messer Chups is a band a bunch of us followed for years,” Dunivant described. “They’re almost Roxi’s go-to soundtrack — so many routines she’s done here over the years have been to Messer Chups.”

D’lite will be performing with Messer Chups in a combined live show and burlesque stage act. “They’re going to be a house band in this bar from hell,” Dunivant laughed.

A revamped Asylum: Which brings us to Theatre Bizarre’s third new feature this year — a totally redone Asylum, Dunivant’s personal “early 1990s film version of hell” complete with stalagmites rising out of the ground and 27-foot-tall sword-wielding goats flanking a customized stage build-out.

This marks the first year Dunivant has been able to secure full blueprints for Theatre Bizarre’s Asylum space, held in the Masonic’s towering chapel room (often used for weddings). The room has a giant cross hanging from the middle, marking the exact center of the temple.

Not only did he secure floor plan blueprints, but blueprints for the walls, the pulley vaults, the columns, the cutaways and the molding. “We were able to build a full, computer-generated model to scale,” Dunivant explained, “so we could create the set as a model and work out the logistics of bands and acts on the stage that we were building.”

In the past, Dunivant couldn’t replicate the exact vision he had for the room — until now. “We’ve been planning this since the beginning,” he said. “I’m pretty excited.”

They’ve had to work around the stalagmites, which pose danger for guitar cords and costumes getting caught. Now, they can see those problems ahead of time.

Thousands of costumed revelers filled the Masonic Temple
Thousands of costumed revelers filled the Masonic Temple in downtown Detroit during the Theatre Bizarre masquerade ball on Saturday, October 15, 2016. (Photo: John Froelich, Special to the Free Press)
The Asylum set was inspired by late 1800s, early 1900s filmmaker and former magician Georges Méliès, often hailed as the first special effects artist — a lifelong inspiration for Dunivant. “He had such originality,” Dunivant described. “He would do these grand visions of undersea kingdoms or visions of hell. That vision was the inspiration for this.”

Dan Land, who assists with 3D elements for the event, helped Dunivant replicate that vision for the design of the Asylum stage. “We heightened the atmosphere with unnatural shadows, shadows where lights couldn’t possibly cast them,” Land, 34, said. “There are all these new visual layers.”

The D’Lite-Messer Chups live act will kick off the opening of the Asylum and the sixth floor during the preview galas, which take guests through the the eight floors in a parade, slowly making their way up.

There are even a few more new rooms that Dunivant wants to keep a surprise. He laughed: “This is so much work that we might as well push it as far as we can.”